Speed is Expensive: Philip Vincent and the Million Dollar Motorcycle – Review
80 Minutes, Not Rated
Written and Directed by Lancaster David
**NOTE: this post may be updated with audio once we actually have the chance to talk about it. Until then, you can read Mark’s review below. Remember, though, you can listen to all our discussions of this and every other movie directly over on ACAST. Stay tuned.**
Synopsis:
Philip Vincent built the fastest and most glamorous motorcycles in the world – yet he ended his days in poverty. Some 40 years after he died, one of his machines sold for over $1 million. This is his untold story.
Sometimes I feel like these sorts of documentaries are better then those dealing with some big, singular event or “important” person.
Instead, we are treated to those who would otherwise be considered “nobodies” or — perhaps more generously — as “everymen” to the average human being on planet Earth.
With a mind that saw engineering and design “truths” as little more than inertial thinking, as problems to be solved rather than rules to be slavishly followed, Philip Vincent followed his vision, his passion, to create a brand of motorcycle designed to do ONE THING: go faster than anyone else.
An intriguing look at motorcycle culture through the 20th century, Speed is Expensive examines the different approaches to marketing bikes and the impact that has on actual sales of said bikes.
It also provides a lesson in “what was old is new again,” as Vincent encounters the cyclic (no pun intended) nature of business and technology, with modern riders and collectors rediscovering the bikes and what they could — and still CAN — do in terms of SPEED.
A documentary about an individual like Philip Vincent is also a documentary about the unlimited creative potential of humanity, and whether you’re a motorcycle enthusiast or not, you can take something from a story like this one.
Check it out.
Speed is Expensive is currently streaming on digital platforms including (but not limited to) Amazon, Vudu, iTunes and is narrated by Ewan McGregor.
And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.
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